Winner OhSoBlondex Short Story Contest (49): Immortality

Jane never liked being disappointed; especially when she found out she was being lied to. Looking over her left shoulder, she stared into the brightly lit office on the thirty-third floor of the business building opposite to the one on which she stood. Hovering above the ground of the roof by mere inches, her eyes glared with anger. Inside the well-lit office, she saw Matt, talking to a tall brunette. In high heels and an inappropriate skirt, Jane instantly recognised her. As Matt sat behind his desk playfully twirling his pen in his left hand, the woman made a comfortable seat upon the front of his desk. Casually lifting her right leg over her left, gave Matt an excuse to stare at them. Turning away, Jane’s eyes started to shimmer with a glowing red tint that always happened when she got angry. Taking flight into the night’s sky, the moon’s rays shone down on Jane’s long, blonde matted hair. She was medium height and average build. Her appearance made her look like an average, everyday normal girl. Little did people know that when the moon came out to play – so did she.

As the sun shone through the bedroom’s curtains, Jane wiped her eyes and let out a loud yawn.
“Morning hunny,” Matt said turning to face Jane in bed.
“Morning.”
“Why you up so early babe? You don’t have to be in the office until nine.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling on her underwear and jeans, Jane refused to give Matt eye contact.
“I’d rather be early than late,” Jane replied while putting on her blouse and walking out of the bedroom.
“Don’t you want to cuddle for a bit?” Matt shouted after her.
“I’d rather throw you off a cliff and watch your head smash open at the bottom you prick.” Jane murmured to herself.
How much longer was she going to have to pretend to like this idiotic, poor excuse of a man? It had been almost four months and she had only seen her target three times. The longer she waited to confront her target, the greater the chance was of failing her task, and that would be disappointment.

Driving to work dressed in her pretend work clothes, Jane took the normal detour, which didn’t lead to an office. Instead, it lead to her real job, the STA. The Supernatural Target Association was an organisation lead by some of the finest Hitmen, Scientists, Doctors and undercover FBI agents to date. The people that are targeted by the STA are tracked from birth, or in some cases tracked as soon as their special abilities start to evolve. Each person with a supernatural ability gives off radiation called Texton. The more Texton a supernatural gives off, the stronger they are. The Scientists in the STA labs have built multiple devices that can track down Texton within 200 miles and pinpoint its exact location within twenty seconds.

The STA found Jane when she was sixteen, as this was when her abilities started to evolve. The Texton meter tracked her down on the database, only instead of killing her, they chose to bring her onboard with the company. Of course it wasn’t her looks that stopped her from being killed. She was immortal. Even if the STA aimed a shotgun at her heart and fired, she would still be standing, very much alive.

“Good morning Jane,” her personal assistant said greeting her at the door as she followed her from behind.
“Can you give me the Texton status with Lisa?”
“Yes, her reading has increased by five percent over the last week which shows an overall percentage increase of forty-five percent in the last three months.” Her assistant replied looking at her PDA.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Jane turned around to face her assistant, Nimo.
“Forty-five percent?”
“Yes, her strength is increasing weekly and the last location status report the lab received was last night when you tabbed her in on the roof.”
“This bitch is going to make it hard for me to kill her, isn’t she Nimo?”
“Looks that way Jane.”
“I hate people who make my job harder than what it already is.”
Signalling Nimo away, Jane followed the long spiral stairs down to the laboratory.

Opening the door to the brightly lit laboratory, Jane’s eyes searched the crowded room. The room was filled top to bottom with machines, which gave off a light humming noise. From laptops and computers, to Texton target trackers, the laboratory was defiantly well equipped for any emergency that may arise.
“Good morning Jane,” Doctor Fenix said greeting her with a warm smile.
“Morning Fenix, I was just looking for you. I just had a status report from Nimo stating Lisa’s Texton radiation has increased by forty-five percent? This can’t be right?”
“I’m afraid Nimo was right, Jane. Lisa has been gaining strength and the longer we leave it before we make our move, the harder she is going to make it for us.”
“How is she gaining all this extra Texton? It doesn’t make sence, the average supernatural gives off twenty percent a year. How is this chick managing to more than double that in three months?”

Following Doctor Fenix further into the laboratory, he stared down onto his clipboard and wrote down a few notes. As Jane followed and nodded to a few of his colleagues, he stopped at his desk.
“Take a seat Jane.” As Jane pulled out a seat, she noticed the worry in the Doctor’s eyes.
“What’s going on Fenix?”
“Lisa knows we have been following her and has been visiting places where Texton radiation is prone to circulate. Even though it’s only small amounts, you can see, it makes a big difference.”
“Okay, so we get her and kill her before she gets stronger?”
“That, Jane, is easier said than done.” Fenix replied taking off his glasses and rubbing his forehead.

Part 2

“Lisa we have reports on Jane’s whereabouts last night.” Melissa stated while handing Lisa several tracking reports.
“Madison Square?” Lisa read aloud questionably.
“That’s right. She was following you.”
“Does this woman ever take a holiday? She has been following me every day for the past three and a half months. Nice to see I mean so much to her.” Lisa said exasperated.
“She has only spotted you three times that we know of.” Melissa added taking a seat at Lisa’s large mahogany desk.
“So she knows that I saw Matt last night?”
Looking at Lisa with curious eyes, Melissa took back the reports she had just handed to her.
“Why were you actually at the office last night with Matt?”
“What?” Lisa said, annoyed that her thoughts had been interrupted.
“Why have you been meeting Matt in the office late at night?” Melissa asked once again with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s necessary to stop the STA. That’s all you need to know.”
“Ok well, the Texton chamber will be open for you to enter within the next hour; you have almost gained fifty percent radiation within three months.”
Melissa took the silence as a hint and stood up to leave. Before reaching for the door, she turned around to face a worried Lisa.
“You can always talk to me if you need someone to trust, you know that right?” Instead of waiting for an answer, Melissa turned to leave Lisa’s rather quiet office.

Getting tracked down by the STA since the mere age of nineteen for being able to set things on fire, Lisa had always been on the run. She knew that her abilities made her different and that’s why she could never tell anyone who she really was. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed working for the ANNEX Corporation. She fitted in; there were other people just like herself that she could relate to. The ANNEX Corporation’s main aim was to stop the STA from killing off supernatural people and instead, welcome them to a new life with ANNEX. Being the head of the supernatural staff at the ANNEX Corporation, Lisa was eager to work on her first independent case, Jane Summers. Being head of the CEO at the Supernatural Target Association, Jane was a major security risk for her company. Lisa was to eliminate that risk. How she was supposed to eliminate someone who was immortal, was going to be challenging.

Making her way in the elevator up to the thirty-third floor of the Madison building, Lisa looked down towards her skirt nervously and straightened it with her hands. As the steel doors opened, Lisa made her way to Matt’s office. She needed to warn him, she couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. Jane was using him to get to her and if anything happened to Matt, she would never be able to forgive herself. After three months of using Matt to try and get more information about Jane, Lisa had unexpectedly gained emotional feelings for him. It wasn’t supposed to happen, she knew that. She also knew that what she was about to tell him could ruin everything she had worked for.

Standing outside Matt’s office, Lisa took a deep breath. She had never told anyone her personal secret before, let alone had she told anyone about ANNEX. Reaching for the door handle, Lisa knocked slightly on the door.
“Matt? You in there?”
As no reply came from inside, Lisa slowly opened the door and walked in the unusual quiet office. Closing the door behind her, she looked around.
“Matt? You here?”
“Hello Lisa.” A voice in Matt’s office chair replied as it turned around to face Lisa. Gathering Fire from her fingertips, Lisa prepared to defend herself.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary.” Jane replied looking at her burning hands that gave off a fiery glow. Instantly recognizing who sat in Matt’s chair, the fire from Lisa’s hands disappeared.
“Hello Jane. Finally had the balls to come speak to me this time?”
“Speaking of balls...” Jane replied looking over towards the window. Lisa’s heart sank as she saw the horrific sight that she wished she hadn’t.
“You killed your own boyfriend?” Lisa angrily asked fighting back her tears.
“Oh, I wouldn’t call him my boyfriend. More of someone who was once needed for a purpose but was no longer necessary, kind of like a dog that needs a new toy to play with.” Jane replied sarcastically while getting up out of Matt’s desk chair.
“More like you’re an evil bitch that will kill anyone that gets in her way.”
“Exactly, and you, Lisa, are in my way.”
Looking around, Lisa found no route to exit. Turning around to try to open the door and make a quick escape, she noticed it was locked.
“Leaving so soon? That’s a shame, I was about to offer you muffins.” All of a sudden, a group of armed men attired with fire resistant suits emerged from Matt’s closet and surrounded Lisa.
“You won’t get away with this Jane! After me, there will be other people! One day you will meet your match and then you’ll be screwed!” Laughing at Lisa, Jane walked around to the front of Matt’s desk where Lisa remained restrained.
“Until then, you are the only person who obtains the Texton chamber. Without it, other supernaturals are unimportant.”
“You’re killing me for the Texton chamber? What happened? Could you not get your amazing lab to create one? Your staff is lacking on the good old education I see.”
“With the Texton chamber, you are one of the strongest supernaturals in the world. I am going to eliminate you and put your chamber to good use.”
“Exactly Jane. Underestimating people was never your weak point. Until now.”
As Lisa magically evaporated into thin air, Jane instantly became confused.
“What? Where did she go?” Jane panicked. Just then, Jane realised that she had just misjudged someone who was not to be underestimated and her eyes started to glow with a fiery red. Looking over onto the opposite building’s roof where she had once stood the night before watching over Matt and Lisa, Jane recognised the real Lisa. As Lisa looked down on Jane through the window, she stared at her with a snide, heroic smile on her face. Suddenly Jane realised that she was not only able to burn things but she was also able to make realistic holograms. Her strength had finally reached fifty percent.
“S**t!”